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Posted by
mach4
on 2017-09-01

PUBLIC:

We went to them through a referral.

Though they started off slowly, they moved through diligence pretty quickly. Even early on, they mentioned that they would bring in a new CEO which seemed strange (as our CEO had gotten us thus far). Our founding team had discussed this issue earlier amongst ourselves and felt that we would bring in someone for a Series B or C. So, while we all (including our CEO) were OK with it, we felt it was rude as it was suggested early on without giving him a chance.

While we had Alpha customers in a particular vertical, one partner insisted that was a wrong market. Another partner (who was in that vertical) told us to ignore the first partner.

They went through a very detailed diligence and spoke with our customers and references. Their own network of CTO/CIOs seemed rather modest and it was not clear whether their network would be valuable.

While they claim to be "white space", this is completely FALSE. They are quite risk averse and the term sheet was designed to further minimize their risk.

They also explicitly tried to set one founder against another (asking him privately "Are you sure you have enough equity?").

They had some average EIRs who they seemed to want to push onto us. They seemed to position these pushes like suggestions, but their attempts were clumsy.

We did get a term sheet from them. We wanted a syndicate. Interestingly, many of the other VCs we talked to asked if they could bring in their own syndicate partner. To their credit, the term sheet did NOT have egregious terms). There were some issues that penalized the entrepreneurs too much and we negotiated on some of those.

While we got a term sheet and had initial agreement on most points, the deal did not go through. Their approach seemed sleazy. In fact, based on our conversations with the VC, our lawyer (from the largest bay area startup law firm) told us that the founders should not be surprised if they are fired to allow the VC to recoup some of the (founders') equity stakes.

Many of my experiences seem to mirror previous comments. I will not go to them again.

Posted by
JohnnyStartup
on 2015-12-09

PUBLIC:

Seriously: stay away from this fund. We pitched Yatin at their offices, who was half an hour late to our meeting. During the pitch, he was HAVING LUNCH and looking at his phone, and asking random questions to pretend like he was paying attention. We were interrupted twice by what I presume were his partners, to take him out of the room and talk. When he finished eating, at around the middle of our 12-slide deck, he stopped us and said "ok guys, this is very interesting, we'll get back to you", and left the room. Rude, arrogant, disgusting experience.

Posted by
MedTech Expert
on 2015-11-22

PUBLIC:

One of my companies learned first hand that Artiman was less interested in investing and more interesting learning about the market and company's platform...they took this information to create a competitor. This not an entrepreneur friendly firm. Pitching to them may lead to your worst nightmare.

I met Artiman through their annual event and met some of their portfolio companies. Their philosophy is 'white-space investments', which I did not truly understand until I met with Yatin, Ajit & Tim. They back you for the long haul, and white-space meant focus on un-contested markets with huge potential. This may frustrate entrepreneurs, who are trying to innovate in established markets or where there isn't a clear path to profitability. I found my meeting to be professional, somewhat informative. While I realized I was not the right fit, I can understand how they are the right partners to entrepreneurs who qualify for 'whitespace'.

Walk away or run away from this firm. Incompetent , egotistical , shallow and ethically challenged group. Both key partners Amit Shah and Yatin Mundkur are wonderful until funded and then true colors show up. Regardless whether the startup is doing well or not , they like to put their "candidates" in key positions and control the firm. This firm "under the guise of white space investing" will not hesitate to steal your idea and start a company on their own or pivot an existing portfolio company that is inspired by your idea. . Run away.

Posted by
wannabe
on 2012-10-18

PUBLIC:

With the spate of bad reviews received by this fund and the arrogance demonstrated by many of the team members described in this forum who in his right mind would go in front of them. Arrogance seems to be the moniker of most VC's most funds partners don't seems to have received universally negatives ratings like this one.

When I read the descriptions of the personalities it hits home on how arrogantly they must behave. My question is whether it impacts their deal flow and quality of companies working with them. Guessing is that long term these guys will definitely have challenges , yet does it matter in today's frothy investment environment ?

This was the worst VC experience I've ever had. No firm has ever leaned so heavily on my own resources or wasted my time as much as Artiman. There are a few gems within the fund, but the partner we dealt with should be avoided at all costs. In particular Ajit is really awesome. Read my private post for the rest.

Claiming to be early-stage investor is fashionable. Artiman is no exception. But their concept of early stage seems to be a fully proven business with patent protections, revenue, and everything else you expect of an already successful company on the verge of IPO or acquisition. They have a basic distrust of "techies". So if you are a techie (or so they think), even before they hear your pitch, they have already started searching for a new CEO (a so-called "business guy") to head your company. Master time wasters as far as new technology businesses are concerned. Basically there is not a single partner onboard who understands technology. No wonder their recent investments look like a bunch of lemons.